Want your kids to thrive? Let them fail

"Oh the times, they are a changin'." Those words from a famous Bob Dylan song may not be something most people associate with college athletics, but they help illustrate a seismic shift in the way parents and kids view their athletic opportunities. Baby boomer parents who were "old school" have given way to Gen X parents who have sheltered their kids from disappointment, adversity and failure and by doing so have left them without the skills or toughness to navigate through life. This is a generation of kids who come to college having never learned the valuable lessons that failing teaches us.